Yeah, they really are. I'm actually playing as a belf chick now, and a week ago, I would have gladly welcomed the chance to wear the pants again. But then something happened. The other day I was doing some PvP in Alterac Valley, when I got into it withe a fellow hordie who kept whining about paladins. It got pretty heated, to the point that I told him I wish I was till Alliance so I could come and kill him. Yeesh. He was prolly a 13 year old kid--at least judging by his response, which was "Get back in the kitchen. Hoes don't play Warcraft!"
It then occurred to me that I, for the first time in my life, had been the target of a sexist remark. And then I started seeing the cool thing about playing a girl in an MMO, the chance to experience life through the eyes of someone else. You guys know me--I'm all about seeing the world in other ways. This is, of course, an imperfect experience--half the chicks running around in WoW are kids who want to watch the back-side of a draenei while the farm. Still--no one ever whistled at my human priest, I just wish that I could have dueled that kid. I would have sonned his ass. Or daughtered him. Whatever.
Anyway, this just gives me an excuse to rock that old Xzibit joint. Your flow remind me of a blogger that I just don't feel\Same style and delivery, might as well have his grill...Please avoid if you don't like profanity.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2010 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
I'm going to ask the judges for a translation.
T-NC: You're the digital equivalent of Eddie Murphy's "Mr. White" character on SNL so many years ago.
KevDog, Dranei are a unique race to world of Warcraft -- visualize elves with horns instead of pointy ears and hooves instead of feet. And tails. Kind of like satyrs, but not quite. The females are known for having some junk in their trunk, so to speak, compared to the skinny blood elf ladies.
Farming is when you perform repetitive tasks in the game over and over to earn money in some fashion. Like killing hundreds of creatures to sell the stuff they drop. It's remarkably dull, and the point of view is the back of your own character.
I always made guy characters in City of Heroes for the same reason. Those guys have some sweet booty on them. They certainly did shy away from the eye candy on either side with that game.
From a sociological viewpoint, this is pretty darn interesting! Too bad I don't play WoW, or I'd see for myself.
I found that belves...GIVE things to each other.
If you ever want a VERY disturbing idea what it's like to be a woman; post a fake ad on Craigslist. EEK! Your cup will runneth over with unsolicited pictures of some dude's bean bags.
You've probably been on the receiving end of sexist remarks before, you just didn't perceive them as such. Women aren't the only people affected by sexism.
For example, what about the people you've written about who gave you a hard time when you were at home with the boy while Kenyatta was working?
/PSA for today.
Shani-O. Yeah, like I get made fun of for doing most of the housework in my relationship. I love cooking and, frankly, I'm better at doing laundry and ironing clothes!
"It then occurred to me that I, for the first time in my life, had been the target of a sexist remark. And then I started seeing the cool thing about playing a girl in an MMO, the chance to experience life through the eyes of someone else."
Meh, being called names as experiencing life as a women is weak sauce (as you would put it), TNC. How about cramps? Or the pain of childbirth? Hot flash, maybe? Now that would be an awesome game for you guys.
@JDinBalt - if you'd like to see for yourself, Blizzard lets you download the game for a free 10 day trial... :)
"It got pretty heated, to the point that I told him I wish I was till Alliance so I could come and kill him. Yeesh. He was prolly a 13 year old kid"
Reminds me of last nights South Park re-run, with the rogue character "griefer" randomly killing players.
I have a relative who thought I was having gender confusion issues because I picked Peach in Smash Bros. Brawl. I'm not sure I can handle the pressure of bringing sexual anxiety to a game millions of other people are playing at the same time.
There are male belves in the game? Don't believe I've seen any.
Also, they fucking nerfed warlocks again! WTF!
"'Get back in the kitchen. Hoes don't play Warcraft!'"
Not sure, but I'm guessing Hoes don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
"It then occurred to me that I, for the first time in my life, had been the target of a sexist remark."
Seriously? You mean that you don't watch any television or listen to any radio? I'm not even going to get into the over-abundance of tough-as-nails female bosses that seem to have invaded the boobtube (pun /on), because that's a whole other issue. I'm talking about that most sublime avenue into the American subconscious gestalt...advertising.
At some point in the near-past, advertising went over-the-top anti-male, particularly anti-father. I don't buy into the feminization theory of the modern American male, as I think he's still there and just as manly, he's just covered in layers upon layers of apathy.
Advertising, though...o-m-g. It's only been recently that you even really hear comics joke about it and it gets zero mainstream media attention. Men, and again, particularly fathers, are the idiots, the children, the lairs, the clods, the eternal buffoons of the American commercial. I'm none of the above, at least not constantly and, to my knowledge, never more than one at a time :)
Seriously, though, its gotten to ridiculous proportions. I have two young daughters that I keep away from TV as much as possible, but its nearly impossible to escape the endless assault. The best I can do is try to make the best example of a grown man and father as I can. I've checked into activist (shudder) groups and there are a couple that seem fairly well run and rational. The problem is, a complaining middle-class, white male bitching about being stereotyped is just about one of the most marginalized things you can be.
This is an interesting take on the "becoming woman" concept that Deleuze and Guattari expound on in A Thousand Plateaus. Worth a read for this and other interesting ideas.
Does anyone else find Hardee's commercials sexist? I refuse to ever eat a Thickburger because of them. Seriously, if my buddy made fresh biscuits while we were watching sports, I'd eat the shit out of them. And invite him over more often. Those commercials are sexist and homophobic.
"I refuse to ever eat a Thickburger because of them."
There you go again with the gross sounding food, Stacy. A "Thickburger"? Doesn't sound appealing.
I think you'll appreciate this. It is too bad DAG est days and material were In Living Color. can you imagine what they would have done w/ this.
http://natturnersrevenge.blogspot.com/2008/12/slavefish-new-superhero-of-color.html
Ah geez... you're one of those guys who fills up BG chat with flame wars about how people sux?
I usually choose women when given the option. I say it's cuz of the ass, but it's really because I find the idea of a woman being a hero, kicking ass, and even the way they are related to by other players far more interesting and entertaining (as more than novelty).
I'm so going to take advantage of the gender change thing once I restart. I have a dorf pally who needs to do the ladytwirl heals. (To the uninitiated: The braids of female dwarf healers spin wildly when they heal other characters. Spamming heals means you get to look like a minicopter. Also, in my experience, female dwarf healers somehow manage to own all other healers alliance side. That and the joke about brass balls makes it all winnerstance.)
But I remain disappointed that I can't switch races. Seriously, gnomes should be able to play every. single. class. Especially druids. Azeroth is lessened by the lack of pink ponied Oomkin out there. Also, my ugly hunter needs the cute gnome do-over.
@patagonia: OMG! Aren't there enough "Blizz nerfed locks" threads on the WOW forums? On that note, however: Nerf Shamen!
@ErinSiobhan: Actually, I bet TNC fills up the chat logs in AV telling people to rush to the top of the map and not to run out on Vandar Stormpike.
I think it's frankly funny that all of the games have zero difference between male and female avatars, regardless of race. At least Shadowbane had the stones to make a couple of classes that were off-limits to one gender or the other (furies could only be female, for instance). And there's always the obligatory paragraph either in the game manual or displayed right there in front of you when designing your avatar about how men and women in (insert fantasy/sci-fi realm here) are equally ferocious fighters, etc etc.
I suppose this is due to the fact that if they did something like extra strength for male characters and extra g-force endurance (or whatever) for women they would have a PR nightmare on their hands and the above-mentioned, currently widespread approach is easier and cheaper.
If you want to blow all of that avatar nonesense off, go learn Eve Online. It might take you getting a PhD to figure it out, but you are your ship, not an avatar (tho that's coming soon). All you get is a little headshot for personality, which everyone promptly disregards in favor of whatever ship you currently have strapped on.
Having run female characters on various on-line games before, it really does give you a better perspective on the constant sexism that a lot of women face. We've beaten up a lot of institutionalized sexism in the last 50 years, but there's a lot of casual / personal sexism that is still out there and still has to be dealt with, and online gaming is unfortunately rife with it.